That’s a separate problem with the repugnant conclusion that bothers me sometimes. It appears to be the case that at some point the average function starts greatly increasing ex-risk at a later point even though it doesn’t do that at the beginning. If you are down to Muzak and Potatoes, a potato famine wipes you out.
This criticism has been made before. I think the standard reply was that it may indeed be the case that we would need to have a life somewhat above the level of “barely worth living” in order to guard against the possibility that some sort of disaster would lower the quality of the people’s lives to such an extent that they were no longer worth living. However, such a standard of living would likely still be low enough for the Repugnant Conclusion to remain repugnant.
This criticism has been made before. I think the standard reply was that it may indeed be the case that we would need to have a life somewhat above the level of “barely worth living” in order to guard against the possibility that some sort of disaster would lower the quality of the people’s lives to such an extent that they were no longer worth living. However, such a standard of living would likely still be low enough for the Repugnant Conclusion to remain repugnant.